Sian explains, 'Revolutionaries' refers to a sample of the most prominent politicians, i.e. members of the National Assembly between 1789 and 1795 (both Jacobins and Girondins). As they were much of an age (born during the 1750s and 60s) most of these men had young families. How were these children brought up? They had often been given first names expressing optimism, but they lived their youth through traumatic times - not only the Revolution but the wars, revolutionary and Napoleonic, that lasted until 1815. Many of their fathers were executed or imprisoned, or were on the run in the 1790s, whichever faction they belonged to. The children (usually) depended on mothers and grandparents. How did they survive, get an education, look back on these years, remember their parents?